Rotary printing-press.



No. 648,399. PatentedMay i,-|-900.

' J. L. FIRM.

ROTARY PRINTING PRESS.

' (Application filed Jan. 31, 1898.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheel l.

(III) 0 Miw ATTORN EYS'.

WITNESSES:

Patented May I, I900.

- J. L. FIRM.

ROTARY PRINTlNG PRESS.

(Application filed Jun. 81, 1898.) (N0 MOd BI.) 2 ShBOtS-SIIQBt 2.

ATTORNEYJ? ya: mums vmns 0a.. moraumm. WASHINGTON; a. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH L. FIRM, OF JERSEY CITY, NE\V JERSEY.

' ROTARY PRINTING-PRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 648,399, dated May 1, 1900.

' Applicati n fiiefl January 31,1898. Serial No. 668,520. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH L. FIRM, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

Figure l is a longitudinal section of mech anism adapted for printing two Webs and longitudinally folding them. Fig. 2 is a. plan view of the same. Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are details. Fig. 7 is a perspective of a portion of the gripper belt or apron, on an enlarged scale, showing the manner of forming the grippers.

A A and B B represent rolls or webs of paper set in their different hearings to be used on the different sets of printing mechanisms, as follows: The web A passes over the rollers 1 and 2 to impression-cylinder O and isprinted by the plates on form-cylinders D and D on one of its sides. It then passes over roll 4 and under roll 5 to impression-cylinder E and is printed by the plates on form-cylinders F and F on its opposite side. It then passes under the rolls 6 and 7 and over 8 to the longitudinally-folding frame or former G, to be folded and delivered in any manner desired. The web B passes over the rolls 10 and 11 to impression-cylinder H and is printed by the plates on form-cylinders I and I on one of its sides. It then passes over roll 12 and under roll 13 to impression-cylinder .J and is printed by the plates on form-cylinders K and K on its opposite side. It then passes under the roll 14. and between the rolls 8 and 9, where it meets the web A and is folded longitudinally with it on the former G, being, when required, slit by the slitter L, which projects from roll 9 into a groove in the roll 8.

The plates on the different form-cylinders may be four abreast with columns running circumferentially, as shown in detail at d d d d in Fig. 6.

The mode of operation between each impression-cylinder and its form-cylinders may be understood from the following description of one of them. Taking the cylinder G, for example, a and c are the quadrants, which act as impression surfaces for the forms at on form-cylinder D, each of which is onequarter of the surface of cylinder 0. The intermediate quadrants c and c act as impresproviding the circumference of Q be any even multiple of the circumference of D and D, respectively. For each rotation of cylinder 0 the form d will make two impressions on the Web, one against that quadrant of the impression-surface lettered c and the other against that quadrant of the impression-surface lettered c. Likewise the form (1 will make two impressions; but the impressions from form d will alternate with the impressions from form (1. As the spaces d and 01 are passing the cylinder 0 there will be no impression contact, so that the impression contacts between the impressioncylinder and each form-cylinder are intermittent, occurring twice for each rotation of the cylinder 0, and each continuing during one-quarter rotation of the same. The semicircumference, as d, of each form-cylinder, which is on the opposite side of the cylinder from the form, as being of slightly-reduced diameter, does not come in contact with the web. Therefore this surface d may be used as an ink-table cooperating with the ink-rollers d and (i The ink-rollers, or such as contact with the surface 01 may have either a stationary axle or be movable to and from said surface by the use of any suitable meansas, for instance, such as'is shown in Patent No. 546,136, issued to me September 10, 1895. d and d are ink-rollers cooperating with the form d. d is the ink-cylinder supplying ink to the rollers d and 03 The above-described new mode of operation secures a greater economy and better distribution of ink than heretofore.

The times of contacting and freeing the web by the various form-cylinders vary, so

that'no web is at any time completely freed, and there is agconti'nuous and positive forward impulse given thereto. Moreover, the webs pass about such a large portion of the impression-cylinders with which they are in uninterrupted contact that this alone would cause sufficient friction to secure uninterrupted feeding of the web.

Offset webs a a and b b'pass, respectivelv.

around the impression-cylinders E and J.

They are unwound, respectively, at a and b and rewound, respectively, at ctv and b.

sent a 7 form and impression cylinder which of web .B in colors. 'zo

The webs after leaving the folding frames or formers G G may be passed through any suitable folding and cutting mechanism.

In Fig. 1, and 41 in dotted lines repremay be employed for printingvon one side Each "form will extend circumferentially entirely around cylinder 40. In- Fig. 1 are also shown webs A and B, which are held in separate frames 0 and P.

' v Q and R represent sprocket and gripper belt this mechanism is to threadithe machine withj V out stopping the press and while itis'in momechanismfsuch, for instance, as are shown in United States Patents .No. 374,355 or-No'.

17 6,401, issued tome, respectively, on Decemher 6,1887, and April 18 1876. The object of tion. Forexample, the web A- is pasted and led by hand 'to a' gripper Q on. the gripper belt Q31 when the roll A-is nearly exhausted.

The sprocket Q islowered into contact'w'i th the roller 1 by, the lever S, thereby attache ing the pasted web A to the, face of web A.

The two webs are then carried together ,through'the machine until the slit or end of A is .reached,.after"which the web A takes the place of A. ,The sprocket Q is then lifted to its first position, and thus moved out of contact with the roller 1', but ready to be used again When required. The web B may bereplaced by a web B in a similar manner by the use of a gripper mechanism R, mountedand operated in the same way as the mechanism Q. Themechanism for raising and lowering the sprocket-roller, as above described, is shown in Figs. 6 and 7, Lever mechanism S is pivoted to the frame V at s and carries the shaft q of sprocket-roller Q there being of course site sides of the machine.

When the press is running at a very fast rate of speed, I prefer to slow down to some extent before making the change of webs, as this will insure their action more positively.

The paper of the mill-roll is slit at one of its'edges, as shown at A in Fig.5. This is duplicate sprocket belt and rollers on oppo-' done when the winding of it .on its coreor. stock is started. This insures an easy tearing or separating of it from its core or stock when the end is reached.

I claim a 1. In a rotary printing-press, in combination, the printing mechanism, a guide, as 1,-

pastwhich the web is led to the printing mechanism, a web-holder adapted to hold the end of a'new web and mechanism whereby said web-holder may be operated to bring the end of said new web in contact with the Web .passing' said guide, substantially as described. i

"2. In a rotary"printingpress, incombina tion, two form-cylinders, an impression-cylinder. which issubstantially twice the circumference of each form-cylinder, the form on each, form cylinder occupying substantiallyasemicircumference thereof of greater radius than the opposite semicircumference,

bearings whereby the axes of said three cylinders are held, in substantially j the .same

plane,all substantially as described,whereby alternate impressions are producedupon the web by said form-cylinders and each formcylinder'operates against opposite quartercircumferences of said impression-cylinder.

J In a rotary printin-g-pressin combination, the printingfmechani'sm, aguide, as 1,

past which'the web is led to the printing mechanism, a web-holdernadapted to hold the .end'ofv a new web and mechanism whereby said web-holder may be operated to bring the end of said 'new'web in contact with the web passing said guide; said web-holder consisting of a traveling gripper mechanism, substantially as described. r

v JOSEPH L. FIRM.

Witnessesz] JAMES T. LAW, M. WILSON. 

